UKRAINE

President George Bush support for NATO membership expansion went unheard on Thursday at the final summit he will attend as a U.S. president. The alliance decided the time wasn't ripe for Georgia and Ukraine to join, while allies agreed to send out more troops to Afghanistan.

NATO concluded the first day of annual summit meeting on a factious note, after allies refused to open membership doors to Ukraine and Georgia, on fear of a potential conflict with Russia.

U.S. President George W. Bush expressed support for Ukraine and Georgia as they move towards NATO membership, ahead an alliance summit in Romania where opposition from fellow European countries will be likely.

U.S. President George Bush met with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko in Kiev on Tuesday ahead of the NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania on 2-4 April to discuss NATO enlargement and operations in Afghanistan and Kosovo.

The software company co-founded by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates nearly two years ago is seeing the benefits of more stringent intellectual property policies in China, with a decline in piracy rates and improved results at its mainstay Windows division.

Weeping relatives gathered in cemeteries around Donetsk, heart of the Donbass coalfield, on Tuesday to bury the dead from Ukraine's worst mining accident.Flags in the ex-Soviet state were adorned with black ribbons and flew at half mast on a national day of mourning for at least 89 people killed in Sunday's methane blast.

Rescue teams battled smoke and high temperatures on Monday as they pressed on with the task of tracking down 20 missing miners in a Ukrainian coal mine after a methane explosion killed at least 80 others.

A methane explosion ripped through a mine in Ukraine's Donbass coalfield on Sunday, killing at least 63 miners and leaving 37 missing in underground shafts engulfed by fire and smoke.

Russia unveiled its first all-new airliner since the fall of the Soviet Union on Wednesday, hoping to curb dependence on oil and gas exports and restore pride in its teetering aviation industry.

Monster.com waited five days to tell its users about a security breach that resulted in the theft of confidential information from some 1.3 million job seekers. Hackers broke into the site's resume library in one of the biggest Internet security breaches in recent memory.

Gazprom and Italian oil firm Eni unveiled a plan on Saturday for a big new pipeline to take Russian gas under the Black Sea to Europe, undermining an earlier plan to extend a Turkish route.

While the new prices are below market value, it still is likely to deal a blow to Belarus.

Ukraine and Russia have secured a deal to manufacture natural gas reserves in Ukraine and have made progress on gas price agreement talks for 2006, said Ukraine's premier on Wednesday.